Alberta Premier Danielle Smith joins Stephen LeDrew to discuss one of Canada’s biggest economic problems: the extraordinary amount of time it can take to get major projects approved and built.
Smith points to a transmission project that took 17 years to complete and argues that no serious investor can be expected to wait that long before earning a return.
Alberta is now testing a different approach.
Smith says the province has adopted a 120-day approval target for major projects once environmental requirements, Indigenous consultation and other prerequisites are complete. The goal is simple: give investors certainty and get construction moving.
The conversation also turns to pipelines, Alberta’s investment strategy and a surprising area of agreement between Smith and the federal Liberal government.
Smith gives Prime Minister Mark Carney credit for working directly with provinces on their individual priorities and says that if Ottawa, Alberta and British Columbia can cooperate on a major energy project, it could mark a return to the kind of federalism Canada once relied on to actually get things built.
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